Freewheeling resilient cord drive



y 1, 1954 F. A. FASANO 2,677,915

FREEWHEELING RESILIENT CORD DRIVE Filed Aug. 22, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet 1IN V EN TOR.

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May 11, 1954 FASANO 2,677,915

FREEWHEELING RESILIENT CORD DRIVE Filed Aug. 22 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet 2fnso 19. FAsA/vo,

INVENTOR.

Patented May 11, 1954 UNITED STATES FATENT OFFICE 2,667,915 FREEWHEELINGRESILIENT CORD DRIVE Fred A. Fasano, Richmond Hill, N. Y. ApplicationAugust 22, 1951, Serial No. 243,005

8 Claims. 1

This invention relates to toy vehicles and has for its main object toprovide novel improved driving means for the same.

Particularly it relates to toy vehicles which are propelled by aresilient cord or band which is wound on a shaft, stressed, and then,when released, will rotate the shaft. An object of this invention is to'prevent a reverse winding of the resilient cord on the shaft which wouldcause a brake action on the vehicle, but, just the opposite, to permit afree rotation of the shaft in said reverse direction.

My invention also has for an object to provide novel means for thesecuring of the resilient cord on the shaft, to permit said freerotation, or a so-called free wheeling thereof after the resilient cordis unwound from the shaft by a selfreleasing of the cord from the shaft.

Still another object of my invention is to provide a novel securingmeans for the cord on the body of the vehicle whereby an automatic selfrelease of the other end of the cord, usually permanently secured on thebody of the vehicle, is also provided" for and so an excessive stressingand possible breaking of the cord is avoided.

Still further objects of my invention will be apparent as thespecification of the same proceeds, or will bepointed out therein, and,among others, I may mention: to provide a resilient cord drive of themany advantages indicated hereinbefore; which still will be simple inconstruction, inexpensive to manufacture, and adapted to be easilyapplied to toy vehicles now on the market.

In the drawings forming a; part' of this specification and accompanyingthe same:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic sectional view of a toy vehicleto which thepreferred embodiment of my free wheeling drive has been applied, and

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic bottom View thereof;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary plan View of the driving shaft for saidpreferred embodiment of my novel free wheeling resilient cord drive, and

Fig. 4 is a sectionalfragmentary perspective view thereof, while,

Fig. 5 shows a loop end of the resilient drive cord used on said shaft;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary plan view of amodification of my invention;

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary bottom view of a rear portion of a toy vehicleshowing my novel self I releasing securing of the resilient driving cordon its body;

Fig. 8 is a sectional view thereof, the section being taken on the line8-8 of Fig. 7';

Fig. 9 showsanother modification of my invention wherein the freewheelingand the self releasing features of the device are combined inone construction.

Fig. 10 shows a wire guide in detail.

Referring now to the drawings more in detail, by characters ofreference, the numeral indicates a toy vehicle, in general, to which thepreferred embodiment of my invention has been applied, and it has adownwardly open body 2|, the two shafts 22 and 23 with a pair of wheels24 secured on each, said shafts being journalled in the Vehicle 20 byany appropriate means.

An elastic cord 25 is used for self propelling action and it may have aloop 26 at one end thereof engaging the front shaft 22 in a groove 27 ina manner to be explained hereinafter, while the other end 28 of theresilient drive cord is secured at the rear portion of the vehicle 2|,preferably in a manner to be inclined to the shaft 22 forming anacuteangle therewith, as indicated at 29.

In Figs. 3 and 4 the engagement of a loop 26 at the end of the elasticdrive cord or band 25 with the shaft 22 isindicated more in detail andon a larger scale.

It will be seen that a circular groove 21 is formed in the shaft and theresilient cord or band 25- is terminated in a non-elastic cord' orthread'l'oop26' which is arranged inthe groove 21.

Said groove also is provided with an inclined short branch 30.

The operation of my device is as follows:

The device is placed in the position indicated in Fig. 1 on anappropriate support like the ground or floor 3|, and then will be movedrearwardly, as indicated by the arrow 32, being pressed against thefiber 3| to a desired extent, asindicated by thearrow 33. This willcause the shaft 22 to rotate in the direction of arrow 34, as indicatedin Fig. 4. Due to the inclined position of the cord or band 25 and thedirection of the branch 36 of the'groove 21, the loop end 26of the cord25 will be caught by said branch and the rotation of the shaft willcause the cord 25 so fixed to be wound around the shaft 22, as indicatedby the dotted lines in Fig. 3, and said winding up will cause stressinthe cord 25.

When the moving of thevehicle in a rearwardly direction under thepressure 33 is stopped and the vehicle released the tension-of thestretched elastic cord 25 will cause the shaft 22 to turn in a reversedirection, as indicated by arrow 36, Fig. 4, and will cause the vehicleto quickly run in a forward direction, arrow'3T.

Driving a toy vehicle by a resilient cord wound on the shaft in onedirection and permitted to unwind in the reverse direction, has beenproposed heretofore. However, after an entire unwindin of the turns ofthe resilient cord from the respective shaft in the vehicle, with suchdrives heretofore proposed, in most cases the elastic cord 25 will startto be wound on the respective shaft in the opposite direction, therebyeffecting a braking action on the vehicle and causing it to stop after acomparatively short run, and its run will also be executed with areduced speed.

Various methods have been proposed to prevent such a braking action ofthe driving resilient cord to make the vehicle of a so-called freewheeling type, but the devices heretofore proposed for this purpose havebeen either inefficient, or very complicated and expensive, or both. Thedescribed simple groove 2'! with its branch 30 in my invention will makethe shaft 22 self wheeling with the least possible construction and costof manufacturing and in a very efficient reliable manner.

By observing the drawings, it will be seen that when the shaft 22rotates in the direction of arrow 36, that is, in the opposite directionin which the resilient cord was wound up on the same, then the shaftwill rotate freely in the loop 26 at the end of said cord withoutwinding the cord on the shaft in the opposite direction and withoutcausing said braking action. When the shaft rotates in the direction ofarrow 36, the branch 30 will not catch the loop 26 and the same mayrevolve loosely around the shaft without being wound on it.

Through my invention the vehicle 2!] after being wound up for selfpropelling action by being moved under pressure rearwardly, will shootforwardly and will run in that direction much longer than was the casewith the former devices of similar type and also with a stronger forceand greater speed thereby making the toy more interesting to children.The toy obviously also will have a novel educational effect.

It is to be understood that the loop 26 will be formed of usualnon-resilient cord or thread and 4 I prefer to form the loop 26 for thecord 25 in the manner indicated in Fig. 5 whereby a portion 25a of itwill be turned over the shaft, as indicated in said figure, then will beturned back as at 261) to form a doubled loop proper portion 2&0 andwill be secured on the portion 26a, as shown at 25d. In a word, aso-called slip knot is formed from the non-resilient cord or threadportion 25a. The slip knot so formed will have the tendency oftightening on the shaft 22 when it rotates in the winding up direction,arrow 34, while it will automatically loosen and will permit a freerotation on the shaft 22 when it is rotated in the opposite direction,arrow 26. This loose reverse rotation however would not be certain andemcient in case loop 26 were made by a resilient cord. At 260 thesecuring of 26a to the resilient cord 25 is indicated.

In Fig. 6 a modification of my self winding free wheeling drive for toyvehicles is illustrated. In this modification instead of the groove 21with a branch 30, a piece of wire 40 is wound in a screw like mannerover the shaft 22 having a helically wound main portion 4| forming apart of a screw thread curve and ending with similarly curved inclinedshort termination portions 42 and 43. The loop 26 is arranged adjacentto the fractional screw shaped wire device 48 and the resilient drivecord 25 will have an inclination from the loop 26 towards said wiredevice 40. When the vehicle 20 is pushed rearwardly under pressure,shaft 22 will rotate in a clockwise direction, as indicated by arrow 44,and in such a movement the end 26a of the cord 25 adjacent to the loop26 will be caught between the terminations 42 and 43 of the screw threadshaped wire and thereafter the cord 25 will be wound on the shaft 22 tothe right of the device 40, as indicated at 45 by dotted lines,similarly as was the case with the preferred modification of my deviceand indicated at 35 in Fig. 3. In this manner the resilient cord 25 willbe stretched and when the vehicle is released, it will drive the vehiclein a forward direction, and after the windings 45 are entirely unwound,the shaft 22 will keep rotating in the opposite direction, arrow 46, andit will be seen that in this direction the screw thread shaped wire willhave no tendency to catch the loop 25 or the respective end of the cord25. Loop 26 will be loosened and will slide alongside the device 40without being caught by it and the shaft willbe free wheeling.

In Figs. I and 8 I show a self releasing securing of the cord 25 on therear 41 of the body of a toy vehicle 20. For this purpose I preferablysecure a spring arm 48 on the rear of the vehicle, as indicated at 49,said arm having an angularly bent curved termination 50. The cord 25will have a loop 5| at its end whereby it is hooked on the termination50 of the arm 48.

Normally the arm and the cord are in the position indicated by the fulllines in Figs. 7 and 8. However, after a certain amount of winding, thecord 25 will move in a left hand direction, arrow 52, and after suchwinding it will take the left hand inclined position 25a and in suchposition obviously it will slide off the termination 50 of the arm 48whereby, after a predetermined winding, the cord 25 will not be furtherwound on the shaft 22. It will slide off but will be ready to bereturned on the arm 48 for a new winding action on the shaft of thevehicle.

It will be seen that the limit of winding of the cord 25 on the shaft 22and the stretching of said cord may be arranged in such a manner as toautomatically prevent a breaking of the cord, it being self releasingbefore the danger point.

If the arm 48 is made of spring material it also will be bent to theleft as indicated at 48c thereby facilitating the release of the cord25.

Such a resilient arm also will snap back after such release and may makea noise upon striking the vehicle body and thereby indicate that thecord end was released and must be returned manually.

In Fig. 9, finally, I show a second modification of my device fordriving the shaft 22 by an elastic cord 25 in which modification both,the free wheeling and self releasing are obtained with one simple means.In this modification a wire is turned around the shaft 22 in a verytight manner so as to prevent a rotation thereof on the shaft. The wirewill have a curved termination or finger 6| projecting from said shaftand a loop 62a of the cord 25 will be hooked onto said finger 6|. Itwill be seen that when the shaft 22 is rotated in the direction of arrow62, cord 25 will be wound around the shaft, will be stretched, therebypreparing for a driving of the vehicle. When such a winding is stoppedand the vehicle freed, the cord 25 will start to wind the shaft in theopposite direction, and when all its former windings on the shaft 22 hasbeen unwound, it will automatically slip off the finger BI and permit afree wheeling of the shaft 22.

In:v this. modificationobviously the, cord 25- has to be hooked over;the finger 6;! at every renewed operation of the: device. To; make;such. 91L renewed hooking of the cord on said finger easy and automatic,I, may-provide a guide device: 63: rojecting from the; side of thevehicle and: having parallel wires between which the. cord 25 may slide.A knot. or. other limit member 64 may. also, be provided in: the cord25' so that upon a freeing of the cord from the finger 6! it will be.retained by the guide 63* in a position ready for an. easy hooking ofthe same on the finger 6|.

In the form of the guide shown in Figs. 9 and 10, a wire 66 will have afront wider doubled portion 61, and a rear closer doubled portion 68. Aloop 62a at the end of resilient cord 25- will be held in a fiathorizontal position between the wires G T. The elastic cord Z-S-thenpasses between wires 68 which are closer set and willnot" permit thepassage of knot 64 and the loop 62a. On rotation, as indicated by arrow62 finger 5! will automatically catch loop 69, but on the reverserotation it will just rub against it without hooking into it.

I may remark that a very simple one direction drive according to myinvention may be provided by using the slip knot 26 earlier described,on a shaft without any special construction on the shaft. In this case,however, the knot may have to be of elastic cord and loose rotationtherein of the shaft in a reverse direction.

Also, certain portions of my device in the draw ings have been shown inan exaggerated manner for the sake of clearness, so for instance, inFig. 6, knot 26 is set at an exaggerated distance from the wire 40,While in reality it will be very close to it.

Instead of the single slip knot shown in the drawings particularly inFig. 5, double thread slip knots may be used particularly when the shaft22 is very small.

I also may remark that instead of the wire screw thread portion shown inFig. 6, a wire coil spring may be used the shaft retaining its positionby frictional engagement and the front end of which is used to catch thecord in one direction while permitting it to pass in the otherdirection. This construction is materially cheaper to manufacture andeasier to apply.

I also may use an appropriate clamp on the shaft instead of a loop andhook the end of the resilient cord on a finger on the clamp, causing towind up on the shaft in one direction, but slipping off the clamp in theother direction of rotation.

It will thus be seen that there is provided a device in which theseveral objects of this invention are achieved and which is well adaptedto J meet the conditions of practical use.

As various possible embodiments might be made of the above invention,and as various changes might be made in the embodiment above set forth,it is to be understood that all matter herein set forth or shown in theaccompanying drawings is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in alimiting sense.

Having thus described my invention in some detail what I claim as newand desire to protect 2' by Letters Patent of the United States, is:

1. In a toy vehicle, a body, a shaft journalled on the body, wheelsfixed on the shaft for rotation therewith, a cord having an elasticportion connected at one end to the body, a loop at may not permit aneasy which may be pushed over t.

' loop,

the; other: end. of the cord, said: cord passing through said? loop, andsaidloop and theportion of: the cord adjacent thereto surrounding saidshaft, andmeans on the-shaft and, adjacent said loop: to engage said'loopupon-rotating-said wheels and: shaft in: one direction whereby towind saidcord. aboutsaid, shaft for stretching the elastic portion of:said cord and whereby upon releaseof said-*wheelstandshaft the stretchedelasticportion of. the; cord: will. rotate said shaft, andwheels in anopposite-direction and unwind from said shaft, said loop engaging meansbeing arranged torelease from. said; loop when the. cord is fullyunwound. whereby to permit said shaft to continue rotating; freely insaid opposite direction withoutwinding, said cord.

2'. combination; of claim, 1, said loop engaging meansv comprising anannular groove formed. in. the shaft receiving the portion of. the cordadjacent said loop, and further comprising a groove in the shaft offsetfrom the annular groove helically.

3. The combination of claim 1, said shaft extending transversely of thebody and said cord extending in a direction inclined to the shaft.

4. The combination of claim 1, the connection between the cord and thebody comprising means fixed on the body and releasably engaging saidcord and adapted to release the cord when the cord is stretched to apredetermined tension.

5. The combination of claim 1, said loop being made of non-elasticmaterial.

6. In a toy vehicle, a body, a shaft journalled on the body, wheelsfixed on the shaft for rotation therewith, a cord having an elasticportion connected at one end to the body, a loop at the other end of thecord, said cord passing through said loop, and said loop and the portionof the cord adjacent thereto surrounding said shaft, and means on theshaft and adjacent said loop to engage said loop upon rotating saidwheels and shaft in one direction whereby to wind said cord about saidshaft for stretching the elastic portion of said cord and whereby uponrelease of said wheels and shaft the stretched elastic portion of thecord will rotate said shaft and wheels in an opposite direction andunwind from said shaft, said loop engaging means being arranged torelease from said loop when the cord is fully unwound whereby to permitsaid shaft to continue rotating freely in said opposite directionwithout winding said cord, said loop engaging means comprising anannular groove formed in the shaft receiving the portion of the cordadjacent said and. further comprising a groove in the shaft offset fromthe annular groove helically. said loop engaging means comprising ahelical ridge on said shaft and adjacent said loop and said cord beinginclined from the shaft toward said ridge.

7. In a toy vehicle, a on the body,

body, a shaft rotatable wheels on the shaft, a cord, a loop at one endof the cord, said cord passing through the loop, and the loop and theportion of the cord adjacent thereto surrounding the shaft, means on theshaft to engage the loop upon rotating the shaft in one direction towind the cord about the shaft, means interconnecting the cord with thebody and adapted to be tensioned when the cord is wound on the shaftwhereby to exert pull on the cord to unwind the cord and rotate theshaft in an opposite direction, said loop engaging means being arrangedto release from the loop when the cord is fully unwound whereby topermit the shaft to continue rotating in an opposite direction freelywithout winding said cord after the cord is fully unwound.

8. In a toy vehicle, a body, a shaft rotatably mounted thereon, wheelson the shaft, an elastic cord, means to attach one end of the cord tothe body, a non-elastic cord having one end attached to the elasticcord, a loop at the other end of the non-elastic cord, said non-elasticcord passing through said loop, and said loop and the portion of thenon-elastic cord extending therefrom surrounding said shaft, means onthe shaft to engage said loop upon rotating said shaft in one directionto cause the non-elastic cord and the elastic cord to wind on the shaftwhereby to tension the elastic cord whereby to cause the portion of thecords wound on the shaft to unwind, and whereby to rotate the shaft inan opposite direction, said loop engaging means being arranged todisengage from the loop when the cords are fully unwound, whereby topermit the shaft to continue rotating in an opposite direction freelywithout rewinding the cord.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS OTHERREFERENCES Mechanical Engs. Handbook (4th ed.) 1941, Lionel S. Marks.

Webster's New International Dictionary (2nd ed.) page 1372.

